Questions & Answers about Mies lainaa sokeria naapurilta.
Why does naapurilta have the -lta ending?
This is the ablative case, which often translates to "from." In Finnish, when you receive or borrow something from a person, you use the -lta/-ltä ending. Here, the man is getting the sugar from his neighbor (naapuri).
Does the verb lainaa mean "borrow" or "lend"?
The dictionary form lainata can actually mean both! You know it means "borrows" in this sentence because of the word naapurilta (from the neighbor). If the man were lending sugar to the neighbor, you would use the ending -lle instead (naapurille).
Why is the word for sugar written as sokeria instead of just sokeri?
Because sugar is an uncountable substance. In Finnish, when an action is happening to an unspecified amount of a mass noun (like sugar, water, or coffee), it takes the partitive case. Adding the -a ending to sokeri shows he is borrowing "some sugar."
How would I ask "From whom does the man borrow sugar?" based on this sentence?
You would use the question word keneltä (from whom), making the question: Keneltä mies lainaa sokeria? Notice how the question word keneltä and the answer naapurilta share that exact same "from" ending!
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